UConn coach Calhoun treated for skin cancer

Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun had some moments of fear, but never thought about retiring after being diagnosed for a second time with skin cancer.

"All I thought was, 'How do we defeat this?'" Calhoun said Friday.

The 66-year-old Hall of Fame coach said doctors determined last month that a lump in the upper right side of his neck near the jaw line was squamous cell cancer, a type of skin cancer.

He had surgery on May 6 to remove the lump, several dozen surrounding lymph nodes and part of his salivary gland. Subsequent tests indicated all the cancer had been removed.

Calhoun will begin six weeks of radiation treatments on June 24 at the UConn Health Center to minimize chances that the cancer will return.

He scheduled the treatments to begin after his June 8 "Challenge Ride Against Cancer," a fundraising bicycle ride he started last year after overcoming prostate cancer in 2003. He plans to ride at least 25 miles.

His doctors said there will be some short-term side effects from the radiation, but they expect Calhoun to return to his normal lifestyle, including coaching. He expects to be back on the bench in the fall to begin his 23rd season with the Huskies.

"I want to coach basketball at UConn. I'm hopefully not going any place," Calhoun said. "At this moment I love what I do and feel very, very comfortable in doing that."

Calhoun was first treated for squamous cell cancer last year when doctors found it on his cheek. Doctors told him the recurrence this spring is related to his prior skin cancer, but not related to the prostate cancer.

His physician, Dr. Jeffrey Spiro, who attended a news conference with Calhoun on Friday, said he believes the coach is now cancer-free and has a good prognosis.

"I'm not going to sugarcoat it, but like I think I said to the coach, there's absolutely nothing here that can't be cured," Spiro said.

According to the Skin Cancer Foundation, squamous cell carcinoma is the second most common form of skin cancer, with more than 250,000 new cases a year in the United States.

Calhoun, who missed all or part of several games last season due to illness, said he knew something was wrong because he was more fatigued than usual late in the season. He felt a lump in the side of his neck that doctors initially thought was a swollen lymph node or cyst. A needle biopsy turned up the cancer.

The diagnosis came just weeks after Calhoun was honored as the Coaches vs. Cancer "champion" of the year for his dedication to the American Cancer Society.

In his tenure at UConn, Calhoun has turned a regional program into a perennial national powerhouse that has won two NCAA titles (1999, 2004).

He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2005 and has amassed 774 wins in his 35-year coaching career. He finished with a 248-137 record in his 14 years at Northeastern and has a 526-200 mark in his 22 seasons at Connecticut.

Calhoun's programs have also been a successful springboard to the NBA. There have been 21 former Huskies drafted under Calhoun; 14 of those were first-rounders. In 2006, UConn became the first school to have five players taken in the first two rounds of the NBA draft.

Spiro said there are known links between health and stress, but Calhoun said he doesn't think his job contributed to his cancer.

If anything, Calhoun said, the diagnosis helped clarify in his mind that he really wants to continue coaching.

"I want to see my kids grow and I want to see all the things I've been seeing," Calhoun said. "I want to see the new kids come in. I have five new basketball players coming in and I want to see all of those things, just like I always have."

(This version CORRECTS record at Connecticut in grafs 7 and 16.))